Call for Papers for the Deutsche Welle Media Dialogue Focusing on “Kenya’s Media Landscape” to be Held in Bonn

Deutsche Welle Akademie and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University invite media academics to participate in the 5th annual media dialogue symposium which will take place on 21 May 2014 in Bonn. This year’s forum focusses on Kenya’s media landscape.

Proposals for presentations are being accepted until 15 February 2014.

KEY TOPIC

Kenya’s 2010 Constitution guarantees press freedom in a way the country has never seen. However, the concentration of media ownership and disagreement on the new media legislation are tarnishing the triumphs of Kenya’s media liberalization and development. Regulation of news content, including hate speech and political bias, as well as journalistic standards are also issues stirring discussion and staining the image of Kenya as a role model for other East African countries. This symposium aims to evaluate the successes and challenges of Kenya’s media landscape.

Session 1: Media Legislation and Media Ownership in Kenya
The focus will be on structural, legal, political and economic aspects of Kenya’s media landscape and will provide analyses of recent developments and future trends, including the pending media legislation and the challenges of media concentration and cross-media ownership.

Session 2: Journalistic Standards and Ethnic Politicization in Kenyan Media Coverage
This session will be committed to the specific aspects of journalistic work and their impact. It will include issues such as self-censorship and corruption, the training of journalists, conflict sensitive reporting – with a special focus on speech and election coverage – and how the issues relate to technological developments.

CONFERENCE LANGUAGE

The conference will be held in English. International media academics and political scientists, economists, academic lawyers and journalists are invited to participate.

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS

To submit your proposal for a 15 minute presentation, please register online under http://akademie-anmeldung.dw.de/MediaDialogue/ and upload your proposal (indicating your function as a speaker) as a pdf or .doc file. The proposal should contain no more than 6,000 characters (including blank spaces) and indicate the suitable session.

All submissions should be in English. Please include a title page containing the presentation title and name(s) and address(es) of the presenter(s). Please also include a short abstract. Should your proposal be accepted the abstract will be included in the program.

Accepted papers will be subject to review and published in full length in the conference proceedings.

POSTER SESSION

Authors are encouraged to submit their abstracts/proposals for consideration as posters. Posters can be presented during the conference breaks and are subject to the same conditions that apply to the selection of papers.

TIMELINE

Submissions are now being accepted
Submission deadline: 31.01.2014 EXTENDED until 15.02.2014!
Authors will be notified by: 01.03.2014